"What's significant for me is that we enter Europe stable, democratically oriented, with institutions which function in line with the law, and much richer than we are now, with an active economy. We can do all this in the time we've planned, so that we'll have adopted standards sometime by 2008. Whether the negotiations will start on March 17 or 18 is all the same to me," he told the press in his office.
He also spoke about the case of Ante Gotovina, the general wanted by the Hague war crimes tribunal and main obstacle to Croatia's European Union entry talks starting on March 17.
Mesic said the National Security Council might not convene on Monday because he would receive his Iranian counterpart Muhammad Khatami.
He said the council would convene shortly after that because new information about the Gotovina case had been obtained. "It shows where funding for some actions in the past came from, where the money was colleted from, how it was done and who did it. We'll soon have... the names of people who organised it and where the money came from."
Asked how a letter and documents recently sent to the Hague tribunal and all EU leaders were received, Mesic said he did not have a full report on the impact of the letter sent by him, the prime minister and the parliament speaker. "But I think it helped to show the Hague tribunal every action Croatia has taken," he said, adding the actions were partly belated, "but better late than never".
"I believe more in this latest information that we'll have, that we'll analyse and compile in the next few days. We'll be much more convincing and help solve this issue," he said.
He added the new material would be sent to the EU by March 10, when COREPER, a committee comprised of EU ambassadors, is due to convene and prepare documents for the meeting of EU foreign ministers.
The press asked for a comment on the Croat American Association's announcement that it would ask the UN that the assessment of Croatia's cooperation with the Hague tribunal be made by this UN court's president, and if it would be better for Croatia if this assessment was made by the tribunal's president instead of the chief prosecutor, who is one party in the proceedings.
Mesic said the association's initiative was viable but unlikely to solve anything because it was the EU which decided on the start of Croatia's EU entry talks and not the chief prosecutor or the Hague tribunal. "The Hague tribunal is expected to deliver a report. How convincing this report will be and how it will affect the prime ministers is an altogether different question."
The president was also asked to comment on today's meeting in Belgrade of the re-established government of the self-styled Republic of Serb Krajina, the unrecognised statelet established by Croatian Serb rebels in the early 1990s, and its members' claims that the situation should go back to 1991.
Mesic said such statements made no sense whatsoever because the Serbs in Croatia had never had autonomy. "As far as Croatia is concerned, that's nonsense."
The press asked what he expected of his meeting with Khatami and if he felt any pressure due to the US reaction to Iran's nuclear programme.
Mesic said Khatami was coming for a reciprocal visit, that Croatia and Iran cooperated well and had no outstanding issues. He added the visit would focus on ways of improving bilateral economic cooperation.
Mesic said every country was entitled to develop its technology, even nuclear technology. As for the military aspect of nuclear programmes, he said the Vienna nuclear energy commission should set control mechanisms in Iran so that peacetime nuclear technology could be developed as a legitimate project.